"The leak affirms what we already know. The war is going badly. The basic policy is riddled with contradictions, Pakistan's two-faced behavior providing one example. Comparisons with the Pentagon Papers are misplaced. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara commissioned the study that became the Pentagon Papers to answer a question about Vietnam: how did we get into this mess? That question should be asked and answered about Afghanistan as well. The leaked material contributes little in that regard."

For several years now, I've been reading Andrew Bacevich's articles (in magazines as ideologically diverse as the American Conservative and the Nation) and books (The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced by War and The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism) that argue for a reimagination of how American government conceives of and executes foreign policy.

Adopting a pose that would be familiar to the late theologian and philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr, Bacevich in effect warns of the dangers of unchecked political pride, which history demonstrates leads to political overreach — the ultimate enemy of any great power.

This sense that a confident modesty should inform public values, especially those applied to a nation's relations with the outside world, is, I think, as refreshing as it is challenging.

The publication of his latest book, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War, seemed to offer a perfect opportunity to sit down with this Army colonel turned Boston University international-relations professor and discuss what's wrong with the war in Afghanistan.

Born 63 years ago in Normal, Illinois, Bacevich still retains a touch of his flat, Midwestern twang. In conversation he is casually precise — a holdover, perhaps, from his days of command. Bacevich manifests the fluidity that one would expect from a well-regarded professor, but despite his obvious intellectual confidence, his easy manner prompts — invites — engagement.

Complicating the equation that governs Bacevich's make-up is the fact that on May 13, 2007, his 27-year-old son, Andrew Jr., a first lieutenant in the US Army, was killed in action south of Samarra, Iraq.

In Barack Obama's worldview, George Bush's war with Iraq was a mistake, but the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan initially made sense. What's your take?
I don't think it makes any sense at all.

Even from the beginning?
I think the war today makes no sense at all. In 2001, it was necessary to show clearly that any regime providing sanctuary to violent radicals intent on attacking the United States would itself pay a very heavy price. And in that sense, back in 2001, it was necessary to punish the Taliban. It doesn't follow that in 2010 we should still be engaged in a large-scale war with the aim of pacifying the Afghan population. The justification for the war is that since the 9/11 conspiracy was hatched in Afghanistan, anything less than the pacification of Afghanistan will invite another terrorist attack. The radical Islamist threat, which is real but limited, is by no means confined to Afghanistan. Even if we can pacify the place, that provides absolutely no guarantee against the recurrence of something like 9/11.

Hoover? Damn! It doesn't matter how many negative ads are broadcast or how many moose are slain on the tundra, candidates and their actions don't transform our politics nearly as much as outside events and circumstances do.

Obamastrology Another Leo president. That's what we're getting with Barack Obama, and it's even good news on an astrological level.

Robert McNamara, RIP As secretary of defense under President Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert McNamara prosecuted the Vietnam War on a day-to-day basis, just as Donald Rumsfeld orchestrated the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for George W. Bush.

Give Malalai Joya a visa In a display of mendacity worthy of the days when the late Senator Joseph McCarthy stifled free speech from coast to coast, the United States Department of State has denied a visa to Afghanistan's most internationally recognized activist, Malalai Joya.

Libya: Why Obama is right That the nation is apprehensive and ambivalent about President Barack Obama's military intervention in Libya is natural, even healthy.

The ‘A’ word How can the media cover a subject that nearly everyone’s thinking about, but is almost too abhorrent to discuss?

WHY EVERYONE HATES WASHINGTON | August 30, 2013 If you want to understand why the United States appears to be beyond political redemption, read 'This Town.'

THE GLOBE SALE, CONTEXTUALIZED | February 27, 2013 News that the Globe was on the auction block was certainly a shock, but it should have been no surprise.

KEVIN, WE HARDLY KNEW YE | December 19, 2012 Thanks to the initiative of journalism-advocacy group MuckRock, 500 pages of raw and redacted FBI files focusing on allegations of corruption during the 1970s in the administration of the late Boston mayor Kevin White are now available to the public.

HUB FANS BID BARON ADIEU | November 16, 2012 In the 1960s and 1970s, when the media sky was as expansive as the horizon of Fenway Park, Boston Globe editor Tom Winship hankered to make the Globe one of the nation's top 10 dailies. He succeeded.